Dana Lyons has been intensively touring with two simultaneous shows over the last few months, releasing his latest, new album, The Great Salish Sea, and raising awareness and action about increased, explosive, Northwest oil trains with speaker Matt Krogh of ForestEthics on the Crude Awakening Oil Train Tour. Conducting a series of performances from June 6 to 30, Dana is singing new and comedy songs and rallying activists, and Matt is giving presentations about oil trains and tankers, from the Oregon and Washington coastal cities near proposed and operating oil storage, refining, and shipping terminals to the interior Idaho and Montana towns along the rail lines of potentially explosive oil trains.
Originating in the fracked Bakken shale oil fields of North Dakota, the amount and frequency of these “bomb trains” has been escalating over the past two years throughout much of the U.S. and Canada. They carry the same type of crude oil as trains that derailed, exploded, and sparked massive fires in Alabama, Alberta, North Dakota, and Virginia during the last year, and killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, eastern Quebec, on July 6, 2013, a catastrophe marked next month by numerous planned protests across the continent. More dangerous to Northwest communities than controversial coal trains, similar oil trains rumble past nearby schools, hospitals, homes, and businesses, toward export facilities proposed for expansion in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. Not only could they blow up entire neighborhoods, their oil in ocean-going tankers imposes much greater risks and threats of spills in the Salish Sea, the inland Pacific and Puget Sound waters of British Columbia and Washington.
But the people of these four states can halt the increase of oil trains, much like we have deterred proposed coal export trains. Widespread public opposition to Northwest coal train traffic, fossil fuels, and climate change, as well as investor withdrawal from coal port projects, have caused the cancellation of three of six planned coal terminals in Oregon and Washington in just two years. While resistance grows against remaining coal export proposals, the public is realizing that the region should not bear the incredible risks associated with exploding, burning oil trains and oil spills, so that big oil companies can profit from shipping American oil to Asia. The Northwest and the U.S. have been successfully working to reduce oil use and to carefully regulate oil transportation through the region.
Come to the Moscow Crude Awakening Oil Train Tour Show with Dana Lyons, and learn about the proposed and ongoing oil trains that the oil industry plans to send through Northwest towns for export through the Salish Sea. Explore how our region is organizing to stop these oil trains and how you can help, while enjoying some great tunes and a lovely Solstice gathering! Please join Palouse Environmental Sustainability Coalition and Wild Idaho Rising Tide (WIRT) activists, friends, family, and allies at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, 420 East Second Street in Moscow, Idaho, at 7 pm on Monday, June 23, for an inspiring concert and an informative talk by Dana Lyons, with potluck snacks, beer, and wine. Show hosts suggest $10 to $20 donations for fundraising admission, but will not turn anyone away for lack of funds. For further information about the oil train issue and this tour event, visit WIRT website and facebook pages at WildIdahoRisingTide.org and Facebook.com/WildIdaho.RisingTide or contact WIRT at wild.idaho.rising.tide@gmail.com or 208-301-8039. Please print and widely post this PDF version of the color, letter-sized Moscow Crude Awakening Oil Train Tour Show Flyer.
The Crude Awakening Oil Train Tour is making stops in Port Angeles, Everett, Vancouver, and Olympia, Washington, on June 6, 7, 12, and 14, and in Portland, Oregon, on June 13. Dana will offer an upcoming show sponsored by Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper (208-597-7188, LakePendOreilleWaterkeeper.org) at 7 pm on Tuesday, June 24, at Farmin Park on Oak Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues in Sandpoint, Idaho. Spokane Riverkeeper (bart@cforjustice.org) will also host a performance at 7 pm on Wednesday, June 25, on the Saranac Building roof at 35 West Main Avenue in Spokane, Washington. Missoula and Helena, Montana, comrades have scheduled tentative shows respectively on Thursday and Monday, June 26 and 30. To find out more about ForestEthics campaigns, eco-performer Dana Lyons and his music and merchandise, and Crude Awakening Oil Train Tour updates, browse the following website links.
ForestEthics: Crude by Rail Dangers
Wild Idaho Rising Tide 